Washington, D.C. (April 12, 2022) - This spring, Team USA earned first place in the 11th European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad (EGMO), with each student also earning a medal for their individual performances. The EGMO is an international mathematics competition focused on gathering teams of young women from around the world to engage in a two-day competition.
For the past two years, the EGMO has been hosted virtually; however, this year, the competition switched to a hybrid format, allowing the 222 participants to participate in person or virtually. Typically, the competition is held in rotating European countries. This year, Team USA traveled to Hungary to participate in person. The 2022 US EGMO team included Kaylee Ji, 16; Vivian Loh, 15; Jessica Wan, 15; and Isabella Zhu, 16. This incredible team was led by equally remarkable team leaders Rachel Zhang and Oleksandr Rudenko, who helped prepare the students and support pre-competition engagement.
This year’s EGMO saw tight competition among 57 teams. Team USA’s first-place accomplishment surpasses their second-place title at the 2021 EGMO, as well as their fourth-place title at the 2020 EGMO. This is the second time Team USA has won first place at the EGMO, the first being EGMO 2019. Along with this incredible achievement, each member of Team USA earned a medal for their individual performance:
- Kaylee Ji, silver medal
- Vivian Loh, gold medal
- Jessica Wan, gold medal
- Isabella Zhu, gold medal
On top of this improved overall performance, Team USA celebrated Jessica Wan’s second time participating in the EGMO.
The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) supports the growth of the US EGMO teams each year through the American Mathematics Competitions (AMC) by selecting team members from AMC participants. A special thanks to Citadel and Citadel Securities for supporting this year’s team!
“The 2022 EGMO team rose to the occasion under exigent circumstances and represented themselves, MAA, and our country extremely well,” said Jennifer Barton, Director of the American Mathematics Competition. “2022 has proved to be a challenging year. In addition to a second Covid variant, we were faced with whether or not we should send a team to Eastern Europe to compete. I am so proud of their fortitude and first place win.”
The MAA is consistently working to celebrate the achievements of young women in the mathematical field and looks forward to recognizing more young women in the 2022-2023 AMC cycle, the 2022 Young Women in Mathematics Awards & Certificates program, and the 2023 EGMO in Slovenia.
Note: The EGMO Team was recently featured on the AMC Student Video Podcast: The Curious Cube. Watch this episode to meet the team and learn more about the EGMO! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOZpX22LE2U